Finland hands out $650,000 in grants

Seven feature films attract grants for filmmakers

MOSCOW — Finland’s National Council for Cinema has handed out more than $650,000 in grants to encourage producers of the country’s best films to develop new projects.

The coin given to 25 films — features, documentaries and television shorts — is designed to support the development of projects by the producers of “artistically high-quality film.”

The money is targeted at films considered the most promising that have been released or completed in the previous year, between autumn 2011 and spring 2012, said Kati Nuora, spokeswoman for the Finnish Film Foundation.

The seven feature films, whose producers and directors will be given coin, include “Silence,” directed by Sakari Kirjavainen and produced by Cine Works Koskinen and Rossi, and “The Storage” by Taru Makela, produced by Kinosto, both of which get $64,000.